It seems that Google and YouTube have quietly added some new features to the embed player in an effort to help drive channel subscriptions and off-site sharing. We take a look at some of these features that were noticed by a member of ReelSEO staff.

There are several new, key features in the embedded video player for YouTube that seem geared toward helping boost Channel Subscriptions and off-site sharing. First up there’s an interactive overlay with the ability to share, like/dislike and Subscribe to the channel, including the full channel info. It’s only viewable when the video hasn’t started playing, is paused or when the user mouses over it. When paused or when the user does a mouseover, just at the top of the video you’ll see the embed overlay, we’ll call it an action bar or interaction bar? I like interaction bar. Peep that image just above this text and you get a general idea of what that bar looks like. Actually, Nalts almost looks like he’s trying to grab it instead of the brim of his hat. I bet he pissed it’s blocking the text on his hat…

Interacting with that bar gives several options, as I mentioned. Without pausing the video a user can like or dislike it. How long before that becomes a Google +1 button? I sure am going to miss the dislike button, probably because I’m a salty old bastard who likes to dislike things.

Now if you click Share it will pause the video, it not already paused, and open a share interface (there’s a tiny little x in the upper right to close it and get back to the video). That interface allows you to do all the standard share actions from the full YouTube site page which is pretty cool because you don’t have to click through to YouTube, and you don’t have to even leave the video. Bravo, well done.

In the lower right of this image you see what happens if you bust a cap in the More info area of that Interaction Bar (see how it rolls off the tongue?). That gives you some full on, total player window YouTube channel information and the ability to subscribe straightway…straightaway I say! Get to subscribing to ReelSEO already!

On the Channel information overlay page you can also get some quick info about the number of subscribers, the number of views and thumb flicks for the video.

I quite like all the new features as it will definitely save time and do wonders for on-site time. They mean that I now don’t have to click on the little YouTube icon (above) when I want to embed a video or share, etc. It also means that users don’t need to leave your page if you’re embedding the videos on your site. That’s an added bonus since it’s all about keeping people engaged on your site and not shipping them off to other sites. YouTube, for their part, will still make their ad money one way or another anyway.

Here’s an embedded video player from YouTube so you can check them out for yourself (and subscribe to ReelSEO if you haven’t already!).

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